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Global series: Humans in our Habitat

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07 Dec, 2023

This post was originally published on The Conversation

Families at a tree planting day at Te Muri, New Zealand in June 2017. Greenfleet Australia/flickr, CC BY-SA

On the whole, humanity has been devastating for planet Earth. But our fates are linked, and people, on our good days, can also be nature’s greatest defenders.

The Conversation Global’s series “Humans in our Habitat” tells the tales of conservation-minded communities, from rural Tibetans who’ve always understood the meaning of biodiversity to Bronx residents relearning how to respect their river.


The small hands of Moroccan recycling


A wastepicker working in the streets of Casablanca. (Photo Pascal Garret, July 2013) www.bab-el-louk.org, CC BY-NC-ND, CC BY-NC-ND

Despite being outcasts in Moroccan society, waste collectors defend their profession as protectors of the environment.

Restoration ecology helps nature (and humans) heal


The Bronx River will never be the way it used to be, but it sure looks a lot better today than it did 20 years ago. RickShaw/flickr, CC BY-SA, CC BY-SA

We can’t return degraded landscapes to their original state but we can change the way people relate to their local environments. From New York to Romania, communities are joining forces to relearn how to live with nature.

The fire-fighting kids of India’s Khasi Hills


A bunch of Khasi children fire-fighters watch on, as the flames erupt in a slash and burn episode. Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, Author provided, Author provided

In north-east India, children of the Khasi Hills (Meghalaya) learn slash-and-burn cultivation, a centuries-old indigenous practice now opposed by the Indian government, which cites environmental degradation..

These villagers protect biodiversity at the top of the world


Gyala Peri and Namcha Barwa – Tibet. 梁逸晨/wikimedia, CC BY-SA, CC BY-SA

On the Tibetan plateau, the village of Yunta is showing that animals and humans can live peacefully together and care for one another.

From Ecuador to New Zealand, nature gets its day in court


The Whanganui River, seen here, is now a person under New Zealand law. AlexIndigo/Flickr, CC BY-ND, CC BY-ND

New Zealand just conferred personhood upon the Whanganui River, giving it standing to legally defend its rights. Can this novel strategy save the environment?

The Conversation

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ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB has gained Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) status for its Gearless Mill Drive (GMD) ring motor — technology used to drive large grinding mills in the mining industry.

An EPD is a standardised document that provides detailed information about the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. Based on a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study, the EPD highlights ABB’s commitment to transparency, environmental responsibility and supporting customers in making informed decisions on sustainability in their supply chains.

ABB analysed the environmental impact of a ring motor across its entire life cycle from supply chain and production to usage and end-of-life disposal. The study was conducted for a ring motor of a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill with an installed power of 24 MW and was based on a reference service life of 25 years.

“Sustainability is at the core of our purpose at ABB, influencing how we operate and innovate for customers,” said Andrea Quinta, Sustainability Specialist at ABB. “By earning the Environmental Product Declaration for our ring motor, we emphasise our environmental stewardship and industry leadership for this technology. We adhered to the highest standards throughout this process, as we do in the ABB Ring Motor factory every day. This recognition highlights to the mining industry what they are bringing into their own operations when they work with ABB.”

The comprehensive LCA was conducted at ABB’s factory in Bilbao, Spain, and was externally verified and published in accordance with international standards ISO 14025 and ISO 14040/14044. It will remain valid for five years.

The ring motor, a key component of the GMD, is a drive system without any gears where the transmission of the torque between the motor and the mill is done through the magnetic field in the air gap between the motor stator and the motor rotor. It optimises grinding applications in the minerals and mining industries by enabling variable-speed operation, leading to energy and cost savings.

The full EPD for the ABB GMD Ring Motor can be viewed on EPD International.

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